


please don't let go

by AngelycDevil



Series: across time [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Bucky needs a hug, Established Relationship, Multi, Sam Needs A Hug, bucky is still done with their shit, but there is a death scene, mission, no one actually dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 01:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10263776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelycDevil/pseuds/AngelycDevil
Summary: It's their job to put their lives on the line for the world. That doesn't make it any easier.





	

“—only option, James. You know Sam can do it.”

“I said no. That’s final, Pegs.”

 _Oh, sweet Jesus_. Not again.

“Buck, we’ll be fine. It’s no more dangerous than th—”

“I dare you to finish that sentence, Rogers.” _Damn, he sounds hot like that._ Sam bites away a smile as he rounds the corner. He’d left them alone for ten minutes to suit up and they’re already at each other’s throats. It’s almost enough to take the excitement out of wearing wings. _Flying._ He can _fly._

“You are _not_ doing anything reckless,” Bucky continues. “Sam’s only been out of the hospital for two months. You will _not_ drag back into some harebrain—”

“Bucky, please.” Sam walks into the cargo hold and up to his boyfriend. Peggy smiles at him tiredly. He grabs Bucky’s hands and pulls him close. Physical touch always grounds Bucky even though sometimes he can’t handle it. He knows how worried Bucky can get, how worried he had been when Sam was hit. And he hates making Bucky worry, he hates making Bucky doubt and yet… “I’m completely capable of taking care of myself. I’m _fine._ I was cleared by Dr. Cho herself. Regeneration tech is the future.”

Bucky flushes, caught. His fingers tighten their hold on Sam’s. “You just got out of the hospital. I’m not letting you go into a situation where you can get hurt again.”

Sam softens. He rests his forehead against Bucky’s for a moment. “But that’s not your choice to make. We’re superheroes, sweetheart. This is what we do.”

Bucky swallows heavily, looking down on their entwined fingers. When he looks up, his face is carefully and completely blank. “Do whatever you want.”

He’s out of Sam’s hand and the room before Sam can react. _Shit._

Steve starts after him, but Peggy pulls him back. “We don’t have time, Steve. He’ll be fine.” She rests her head on his arm. “We’ll all be fine. Bucky’s simply overthinking it. We have only have twenty more minutes to come up with a solid plan. That’s the best thing we can do right now.”

Steve sighs and nods. Despite his aching heart, Sam smiles and opens his arms to let Steve fall in. “Peggy’s right. It’ll be fine.”

* * *

“THIS IS NOT FINE! THIS IS SO FAR FROM FINE! STEVE, 5 and 8. PEGGY, BEHIND YOU.” Sam swoops down between two warehouses and knocks out two of the HYDRA agents as Steve round kicks the soldier who crept up on his five and somehow simultaneously just about beheads the other guy with the shield. Despite all the practice he’s had with it, he still can’t quite manage it like Steve does.

Sam touches down for a moment and uses that momentum to get back in the sky. Soaring between whizzing bullets, he gets his eyes on Peggy again…who is nowhere to be seen.

“Carter, you get in?”

When he doesn’t get an answer, “Red, I need eyes.”

_< initiate seek protocol>_

_< infrared: negative>_

_< heat signature: negative>_

_< last known heat signatu_

 

“Red? RED! No! Goddammit.” Sam sweeps back down, landing where he saw Carter last. There were no soldiers around, nothing. He couldn’t hear anything, not the bullets, not Steve or the shield, not Bucky or the quinjet.

It was too quiet. Dead silent.

“Peggy?” Sam whispers. Why, he doesn’t know. Probably because this is Creepy AF and he doesn’t do creepy, much less Creepy AF. He likes his life just fine, thanks.

See, here’s the thing, he’s been in enough combat situation to know this ain’t normal. Which means 0-84. Which means he should contact SHIELD. But he can’t. Because his communications are dead.

Great.

Just…so _fucking great._

Sam pulls out his glock and does a perimeter check. Nothing.

So. She’s inside. She went inside the creepy base without backup. Now, to be completely honest, Sam totally understands why Bucky’s always harping on them. Because they pull shit like this. Unnecessary shit. Not that she can’t take care of herself, but there’s three of them for a reason.

He remains alert as he slips into the base with an open door. No locks, no keypads, nothing. Again, creepy.

Maybe Wanda and Nat should’ve taken this case. They probably have a better background in this sort of stuff.

He clears each room as fast as he could while also being thorough and keeping an ear out for the comms getting back up again. He goes to the basement before the upper levels. He touches every piece of equipment he can. He touches half-filled coffee mugs and toasters. They’re all cold. There’s no one around. It’s like there’s never been anyone around except all the equipment is state-of-the-art and there are no cobwebs anywhere. It’s clean. Perfect.

Perfー

Could he be hallucinating?

He can’t see Peggy anywhere. He can’t hear anything aside from himself. Not the ventilation systems. The quiet…the quiet is almost deafening. It can’t be real.

This can’t be real.

Sam sprints down the stairs and outside. The sun feels  warm. He can feel the breeze on his skin. He darts between trucks, cold trucks, to where he saw Steve last, but there’s no one there. No Steve. No fallen soldiers. No bleeding guards. Nothing except abandoned vehicles and buildings.

This isn’t right.

He has to get outta here. He has to find Peggy and Steve. He has to get back to Bucky. He hasーhas toー

The quinjet.

He needs to get back the quinjet.

Bucky parked the quinjet 1.3 miles from the base, 17 degrees southwest.

“That’s.” Sam gulps. “That’s…alright, so the sun’s over there and so I need to…over here. There. Somewhere. Right. Sam, you got this. You gotーIs…is that _smoke?_ Please tell me it ain’t smoke. Oh, no no nononononono.”

All thoughts of a solid plan slip out of his mind and he runs towards theーyep, smoke. Smoke means fire. Fire never means anything good.

Panic bubbles through him and he tries to regulate his breathing before he passes out or something equally stupid. The closer he gets, the stronger the pungent smell of smoke is, the more ashes float to the ground and here he is, running into a forest fire. Any other day, he’d be hightailing the other way, but this is Bucky. This is _Bucky_. His lover, his family, their forever.

Sam shrugs off his jacket and balls it up to cover his face as he moves closer, slower, more careful. Bucky has to be okay. Bucky will be okay. And then they’ll go back and find Peggy and Steve. It’ll be fine.

It’ll be fine.

It’ll be finー

“Sam? Is thatー”

Peggy?

“Peggy!” He runs towards the direction of her voice only to bound back when the air around him burns.

“Sam!” A shout.

“Steve!”

Sam runs.

He waves a hand in front of him, trying to clear the heat from blurring his vision, but that only makes him cough.

Covering his face almost completely, he searches for her voice. Her voice. That’s what’s important. Forget everything else. Forget the heat. Forget the panic. It’s okay. It’ll be fine. “Peggy, talk to me. Hey girl. Please. What are you doing out here?”

“Iー” she coughs then chokes. “I’m okay. I came toーfind….Bucーky. Somethーing was s-strange. Iー”

“Yeah, me too,” he replies and peeks over his covering. His vision blurs and dances, but he can see her on the ground, Steve hovering on her side overー

No.

No.

No.

“Come here,” Steve gasps out. “I’m trying to wakeーhim up. But he won’tーyou were a paramedic.”

Steve looks up at him, his eyes wide. He was trembling. “Sammy, you gotta save him. You have to save hi-im. Sammy please.”

Sam makes himself move. He has to. He has to try.

A sob ripped out of Peggy when he comes closer. He feels her cold touch on his arm, gripping.

“I tried to help,” she says.

“I couldn’t get him out, she says.

“He was alreadyー”

Sam can’t take his eyes off Bucky. Burnt, bleeding, broken and bruised. He’s not moving. Every second between Steve’s desperate CPR, he’s not moving. He’s just…there. He’s just…a body. Like Riley had been. A pile of bones and marred flesh. He’s just

Peggy’s hand falls away.

* * *

“SAM!”

Bucky?

“Sam! Sam, I need you to hear me, okay? I need you to breathe. Count and breathe. Deep breaths. For me. For your Bucky. _Please_.”

Bu “ーcky?”

* * *

He doesn’t wake up to incessant beeping.

Sign #1: he’s actually dead and in heaven

He doesn’t open his eyes to bright white lights either. He’s in the dark and warm. He takes a deep breath and feels a familiar touch on his sternum. He looks down and there’s nothing there. There’s no one here.

And then, the noises reach him and he almost dies in relief. Sounds. _Thank god._

He swallows dryly and tries to move. He manages to get an arm up before it flops back down as exhaustion floods his system.

* * *

“ーrrified, but he’s okay now. Tony came by to visit. You know what he’s like. Pepper was with him which was nice. We talked…”

Peggy?

Is thatー

Sam opens his eyes, blinking against the lights until a dark form appears before him. “Peggy?”

“Yes, Sam, I’m right here.” Her arms encircle his.

“Peggy…you’re…” _alive._

“Yes, I’m okay, Sam. I’m completely fine, darling.” She soothes away the frown between his eyebrows before kissing him on his forehead.

“What happened?”

“Magic. It was a spell.” Peggy grimaces. “Strange helped us with it.”

He catches her arm and drops a kiss in the middle of her palm. When she smiles at him, he tugs her close to give her a real kiss. He tangles his fingers in her hair and holds her steady. She’s warm under his fingertips, moving and smiling. _Oh, thank God she’s okay. She’s here. Right here. She’s safe. Sam, it’s okay. She’s safe._ He pulls back a little to look at her. “ _Are_ you okay?”

Pain flits through her eyes as she nods, echoes of his own, of whatー

Sam jolts up in his seat, almost butting into Peggy.

“SAM!” Peggy tries to push him down, but Sam’s out of the bed and out the door before she can.

He follows the voices down the hallway to the living room where Steve andー _Bucky._ Sam’s across the room in a flash and in Bucky’s lap. Bucky who is warm and moving. Bucky who isn’t burned or broken.

“Whoa, darling. You alright?” Bucky grins at him.

Sam dips down to kiss his boyfriend before he starts crying. Blindly, he reaches for Steve and pulls him close, sliding an arm around Steve’s neck.  He gasps when Steve joins them, his face smushed against Sam’s, his hard body pressed against his side, his back…just _present._ He pulls away from Bucky to pull Steve into a deep kiss. _You’re okay. You’re all okay. Thank God._

_Thank God. Thank God. Thank God._

Steve wraps himself around Sam, his warmth sinking in Sam’s skin and he basks in it. Peggy joins them a few seconds later, pressing a open-mouthed kiss on Sam’s exposed throat and he shudders. They’re all here. They’re all safe.

It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want more, please drop an ask at our [tumblr](https://imaginesteverogerss.tumblr.com/message).


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